Hannah Berner is looking back on her firing from Summer House and Bravo’s Chat Room.
“I had gotten fired from [Summer House] and a talk show,” Berner, 34, told Dax Shepard on the Monday, June 8, episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, explaining what led to the start of her full-time comedy career.
Berner appeared on Summer House seasons 3 through 5 from 2019 to 2021. Toward the end of her Summer House days, she was also featured on Bravo’s all-female late-night talk show, Chat Room. Though she announced at the time that she had decided to leave the network to focus on “new career ventures,” the podcaster later claimed that she was fired from Bravo due to drama with other cast members.
“It was a matter of, ‘You need everyone to be friends.’ Not everyone was getting along. It was a choice … I was gonna be the one kiboshed,” Berner said on Monday. “I just say, getting fired [equals] star power. It’s a thin line between love and hate. Getting fired, they were like, ‘You’re too much for reality TV.’ I was like, ‘Iconic.’”
Berner admitted that she “learned so much” from her Bravo days and that getting cut from Summer House ultimately lit a fire in her to take her comedy career more seriously.
“And I get a call, ‘You’re fired from Summer House, you’re fired from Chat Room.’ And I remember thinking, ‘Now I need to get a Netflix special,’” the TV personality shared. “I got such a chip on my shoulder. ‘Cause you have to be crazy to stand up every night. You have to have some kind of addict mentality. And I remember thinking, ‘I love when people put me down or cut me out, or I feel like no one wants me here.’ And to come back stronger. I just love that. I love the rising of the phoenix. I love the underdog.”
Berner continued, “Also, no one in reality TV gets a Netflix special. So I was like, ‘Let’s f***ing go.’ … I never put any of my energy towards hurting anyone. I literally was like, ‘And now we’re moving on.’”
Berner, who cohosts her “Giggly Squad” podcast with fellow Summer House alum Paige DeSorbo, ultimately achieved her goal of landing not one, but two stand-up comedy specials. Her first, We Ride at Dawn, premiered at No. 2 on Netflix in July 2024. Her second, None of My Business, launched on Disney+ and Hulu on Friday, June 5.
Sharing some advice for listeners, the New York native said on Monday, “I just want people to know things are going to happen to you regardless. S***ty things happen to you every day. It’s how you react to it.”
Berner previously discussed her exit from Summer House in July 2024, claiming that former costar Kyle Cooke and his now-estranged wife, Amanda Batula, were part of the reason why she was fired.
“The truth is beef started because I did an ad for Truly [Hard] Seltzer, and I didn’t know that I, like, wasn’t allowed to,” she alleged on Dave Portnoy’s “BFFs” podcast, claiming that other cast members got “annoyed” with her because the ad conflicted with Cooke’s own drink brand, Loverboy.
Berner added, “I think some of these shows become a lot of egos, and it’s like, ‘It’s my show. It’s my drink. You can’t do that.’ And there’s no rules, and it just becomes fighting over egos and screen time, and it’s not that fun after doing it for too many seasons.”
Cooke, 43, later denied having anything to do with Berner’s firing, telling Page Six that he has “nothing to do with casting.”
“I’m flattered anyone thinks I could have that kind of pull. But clearly, I don’t have any control over what Bravo does,” he added.
